Thoughts on this for hand plane blades?

[Logan Wittmer]

Hi Guys,

I am a plant manager for a printing company in Iowa. Today, I was replacing blades in our large gilloutine cutter, and realized one of our blades has now been resharpened so much, that it is too short to use in our cutter. Instead of recycling it, I was thinking of maybe having it waterjet cut down into some hand plane blades. The blade (similar to the picture below) is about 50" long, about 4" from spine to cutting edge, and about 1/2" thick. What are your guy's thoughts on the validity of using them as blades in shop made planes? The steel is high carbon, with an 18% tungsten content.

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[bridger berdel]

thicker than it needs to be, but could be fun to make some woodies with. I say do it.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

1/2" thick? Wow! That would be a hefty blade. I say try it out.

[Jim Matthews]

The blade is still 4" deep?

Is the steel soft enough to grind down for finer fitting?
You might be onto something, here.

I would be glad to trade some magic beans to experiment with this stock.

[Cody Kemble]

That is one heck of a piece of cutting steel. I don't know what the tungsten content will do to the workability of it, but it's worth a shot.

[Logan Wittmer]

It did occur to me that the tungsten content will affect work-ability, however they are regrinding it some how. Also, with a dremel bit, they were able to slightly engrave our companies names. Im guessing the tungsten steel is layered to a softer metal.

[Cody Kemble]

You could also use it to make a very hefty infill plane body.

[Bill Houghton]

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http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=49588&cat=1,230,41182 (http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=49588&cat=1,230,41182)

[Matthew N. Masail]

you could make one hell of a wooden shooting plane....

[David Weaver]

It would probably make an OK blade if it's at least 58 hardness, but it's too thick and will be an enormous pain to maintain compared to a purpose made plane iron because of it. It's probably fairly hard grinding because of all of the tungsten, and it's 1/2" thick.

I'd set it aside and use it for something else (what that would be, I have no idea). Presume the steel is T-1?

[Mel Fulks]

18 percent tungsten. Sounds like T -1 high speed steel which leaves a nice surface.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Guys,

I am a plant manager for a printing company in Iowa. Today, I was replacing blades in our large gilloutine cutter, and realized one of our blades has now been resharpened so much, that it is too short to use in our cutter. Instead of recycling it, I was thinking of maybe having it waterjet cut down into some hand plane blades. The blade (similar to the picture below) is about 50" long, about 4" from spine to cutting edge, and about 1/2" thick. What are your guy's thoughts on the validity of using them as blades in shop made planes? The steel is high carbon, with an 18% tungsten content.

292731

Hi Logan

I think that steel is too thick to use for a plane blade - it could be done, but the bevel is going to hang out very far from the bed, and may not have enough support.

I built a jack plane with a thick blade, 5/16" thick D2. This is just 1/8" thicker than a HNT Gordon blade, but it makes it look puny!

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/BuildingaJackPlane_html_7ec9d09c.jpg

Great blade in this plane, but I could not imagine it being any thicker.

The steel may make a bunch of amazing scrapers, on the other hand. Thick enough to hold comfortably. Grind and hone the bevel at 45 degrees.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[george wilson]

At least make the plane bevel UP,or you will have an enormously wide throat!!

I have seen Chinese planer blades made with a thinner layer of HSS steel onto a tool steel backing. But,you can see the difference in the color of the 2 metals. If you see no such layering,the tungsten is just alloyed throughout the HSS.

THey use high tungsten shaper blades (M 42 I believe) in the museum's millwork shop. Those blades are so heavy,and darker in color than normal HSS,they look and feel much like carbide. They can be engraved with a carbide tipped vibrating hand held engraver. I made them a blade for their old engraver so they could put a numbering system on their blades.

[Moses Yoder]

I would double check it and then use it for a straight edge. A nice heavy straight edge has all sorts of uses in a shop.